


The Land of Bears and Ticks

by Cookiemonster2000



Series: Assorted Specieswap Fics [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Humanstuck, Two Week Writing Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 17:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15417825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookiemonster2000/pseuds/Cookiemonster2000
Summary: Aradia loves adventuring in the woods behind her house. Unluckily for her geeky, homebody neighbor, Sollux Captor, she's decided that today she needs a companion.





	The Land of Bears and Ticks

Sollux glanced towards the window, the origin of the movement that caught his eye. He raised his eyebrows at it.

"I'm kinda in the middle of thomething right now, tho if that'th a murderer, I'm not dealing with it."

The face popped back into the window. The wide grin that replaced the still-light late afternoon sky was hardly better than a hockey mask--it was his next-door-neighbor, Aradia Megido. She rapped on the window pane loudly.

"Helloooooo, Sollux!" she called cheerfully. "Care to join me on an epic adv--"

"No." He reached over with one hand and yanked the curtains closed.

Just like magic, the window on the other side of the house became a flurry mass of dark hair, and a grinning face pressed up against the pane.

"You know, Sollux, it's pretty rude to just ignore your neighbors like--" she began sternly. The other curtain was yanked shut. 

The rapping began again. 

Sollux put on his headphones.

There was silence for a few minutes, until a stomping noise too loud to ignore even through his music became evident. As the door to his darkened room opened, he spun around in his chair and gave the intruder his best condescending glare.

It was his older brother, Mituna. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "That neighbor girl is at our door and she won't shut up! Dad wants you to go out and play with her."

"Uuuuuuugh," he groaned. "Do I have to?"

"Yes! She won't go away!" Mituna yanked the curtain back, revealing the offending female, still grinning like there was no tomorrow. "Besides, you need to go outside more."

"Pot, meet kettle." Sollux grumbled as he begrudgingly stood and stretched. Aradia waved cheerily.

He rolled his eyes and headed for the door, grabbing his phone and earbuds on the way out and pulling on his hoodie.

 

Naturally, she was just as excited to see him as she would have been if he'd come out willingly. The dark-skinned girl was donned in hiking boots and a knee-length rust-colored skirt, with a gray jacket to complete the look. She was bouncing slightly, clutching her backpack in her arms. "It's so nice to see you again, Sol!"

"Don't call me that, and I gueth." he muttered. She tilted her head, pursing her lips.

"I know how much you love hanging out in your dark, bland, boring room and typing away at your computer, so normally I wouldn't bother you." Aradia explained. "But we haven't hung out at _all_ since you've moved here, and..."

"Ith there an actual _reathon _you wanted to drag me outthide, or...?" he asked pointedly.__

__"Right. Yes. I wanted you to see something important." She pointed at him with both hands, and winked. "You're going to love it, just wait and see."_ _

__"Where are we going? It'th gonna be _dark_ thoon, the thun ith gonna thet in, like, half an hour."_ _

__Aradia grinned mischievously and snatched his hand, throwing her bag around her shoulders. Taking off, she nearly yanked his arm out of its socket with the force with which she sprinted off. "You'll see!" she laughed delightedly._ _

__"You know there are probably bearth out here, right? _Aradia_?"_ _

__

__It had been twenty minutes of nonstop jogging, predominantly uphill, no less. So how the hell was she not even _winded_?? It was unnatural, Sollux decided, huffing and puffing._ _

__"Sol, c'mon!" the girl chirped, shoving past another set of bushes._ _

__"Again, never thaid you could call me that. Also, You're toteth gonna get tickth from running around in there you know," he responded, holding up his phone. "Ugh, why can't you get a decent _thignal_ around here?"_ _

__"Who needs a signal?" Aradia called back, laughing. "We're in the great outdoors! C'mon, put your phone away."_ _

__"Ugh."_ _

__"Sollux, put the damn phone in your pocket," she sighed._ _

__"Fine, jeeth." He put it away. "I just wanted to put on thome _muthic_."_ _

__"You can put music on when we get there. It's very peaceful!" she smiled. "We're almost there."_ _

__Suddenly, they broke into a clearing, and Sollux instantly knew where they were going. A gorgeous, huge, crumbling stone castle lay sprawled out before them. Deep jade vines crawled within the cracks, and moss grew on every flat surface._ _

__He caught his breath._ _

__"Well?" she asked, smiling. Her dark brown eyes were shining brightly as they drank in the snarky boy's awe at the majesty of the scene._ _

__"Eh," he said quickly, catching himself. "It'th aight."_ _

__Aradia huffed. "We'll see if you still say that after you see the sunset from up there!" she announced, pointing up at the miraculously still standing tower._ _

__"No. Oh, no. I am _not_ gonna climb all the way up there just to thee thome thun-whoa!!"_ _

__But she had grabbed his arm again and was racing towards a nearby pine tree. "Come on, if you climb up this first and swing in the window. I broke it two years ago with some rocks, so it's totally safe by now!"_ _

__"Oh my _god_ , that ith _thuch_ a thafety hazard!" Sollux yelped. "Do you _want_ to get uth killed??"_ _

__"Well, I've never died before!" she responded cheerfully. "And I don't plan on doing it anytime soon. We'll be fine!"_ _

__"Oh my god."_ _

__Aradia made tree-climbing look easy--she scaled the damn thing with grace. When she wouldn't stop calling from up there, he finally exhaled a sigh of the long-suffering and began the difficult and prickly voyage up himself._ _

__"There," she said as he finally heaved himself up onto her sturdy branch. "Wasn't so bad, now, was it?"_ _

__"That was abtholute _hell_." he snarled. "Thith had better be worth it."_ _

__"Trust me, it is." Squinting and adopting a mischievous and adventurous grin, she pulled from her backpack a long, coiled--_ _

__"Ith that a _whip_??"_ _

__Instead of answering him, she tossed it around a far-off branch. Testing her weight on it first, she took a step back and leapt, swinging forward with grace and neatly diving through the open window a few feet below._ _

__Landing in a roll and hopping up, dusting off her clothes, she took a bow._ _

__"Showoff," was all he could say, pretending not to be in awe. She shot him a smirk._ _

__"Well? Come on in?"_ _

__With considerably less grace and more cursing, Sollux lowered himself carefully down onto the window ledge, which jutted out as a pretty safe landing spot. Aradia helped him clamber through the window._ _

__"Tho, you wanted to show me the inthide of thith dingy tower?" he asked sarcastically, after he'd caught his breath._ _

__"Nope. Follow me." she said simply, heading up the winding staircase._ _

__"Ith is--"_ _

__"I've walked on this staircase a hundred times in the last three years, it's perfectly stable." she responded without turning back._ _

__"All right, jutht checking." Sollux shrugged. "But after all that trouble, thith better be goo--"_ _

__As he stepped through the opening to the top of the tower, the cool, sweet-smelling forest breeze filled his lungs. The sky was a masterpiece of pinks, oranges, blues, and purples. In the distance over the skyline jagged with trees, hills, and mountains, the sun was setting._ _

__Aradia, already seated comfortably with her back against the surrounding stone, patted the ground beside her and smiled._ _

__Without a word, he sat down beside her._ _

__The beauty of the forest and the outdoors in general had never really affected him much. Sollux cared very little about aesthetics, only utility. But the sheer vastness of the sky from the sweet little spot on top of Aradia's tower was enough to render him speechless for a while._ _

__As the sun set, the stars began to reveal themselves, one by one. Soon there was a multitude of bright, shimmering diamonds in the darkness of the night sky._ _

__"You know, I don't have many friends."_ _

__"What?" He turned to her, confused._ _

__Aradia nodded. "Nobody really likes me," she said matter-of-factly. "That's why I like coming to the forest so much. It gives me some time to be myself and to be alone."_ _

__Sollux raised an eyebrow. "What... Then, why did you bring me here? To your perthonal thanctuary?"_ _

__"I guess I felt like you would understand, if I gave you a chance to be yourself, too." She turned over and rested her chin on her hands, smiling softly. "Your sanctuary is alone at home, doing whatever you do all day on the computer. We're not that different, really."_ _

__He just looked at her._ _

__"I thought you were really cool when we first met, Sol--I mean, sorry, Sollu--"_ _

__"It'th fine," he said quickly. "You can call me that if you want."_ _

__Her smile could've lit up a thousand dimming galaxies. "Really?"_ _

__"Yeah, we're friendth, aren't we?" he said nonchalantly. "Friendth call each other by nicknameth, AA."_ _

__"AA?" she questioned. "Is that a ni--"_ _

__"Yeah," he said, clearing his throat. "We aren't all that different, I gueth, after all."_ _

__She reached over and took his hand, leaning back again to stare into the gorgeous night sky._ _

__For once, he didn't pull away._ _


End file.
